Mahz's Dev Journal

[LegendBegins]

I'll finish the UI and roll it out when I wake up sometime.

@Mahz

Change of plans - I ate a bad hamburger patty at a superbowl party last night and I've been suffering all day. I'll resume working on it this weekend. @Captain Jordan: Good ideas. I'll think about them this weekend. @BBeast: Good call, that's one of the reasons I split up the topic & convo systems for the rewrite. Easier to lock down all convos with one line of code (you must be a participant to read/post in a convo) rather than have this overloaded topics-for-convos system. @LegendBegins: Yeah, I'd like to push updates to the browser. Maybe I can keep it simple. @Kirra: Aw. Poor [@Mr_pink] :( - Thanks, I'll fix.

@Mahz

I'm sorry to hear that, Mahz. Take it easy.

[Ellri]

We know the number might be depressing, but we found ourselves wondering how many users there are that haven't logged in since the relaunch... Its listed on individual user pages, but as userlist hasn't been implemented yet, it can't be checked easily.

[Rina]

No fun at all @Mahz. Hopefully it passes quickly! I was wondering if you could implement two things in the PM list. I've noticed there is a page forward button and one that takes you back to the first page. Do you think you could add another button so that we can go to the previous page (Now I think about it, it also applies to the recent posts on the userpage). Also, do you think you can bring back the PM count for each convo on the PM list? It was a helpful way for me to distinguish between convos with similar names and people involved.

[NuttsnBolts]

We know the number might be depressing, but we found ourselves wondering how many users there are that haven't logged in since the relaunch... Its listed on individual user pages, but as userlist hasn't been implemented yet, it can't be checked easily.

@Ellri

A newsletter like Email that is sent out in bulk to all the members on the site could help bring back some of those members that forgot about the site for a bit. It'd be a reminder to say, "Hey, we still exist and we wanna see you again. :)"

[Syben]

We know the number might be depressing, but we found ourselves wondering how many users there are that haven't logged in since the relaunch... Its listed on individual user pages, but as userlist hasn't been implemented yet, it can't be checked easily.

@Ellri

A newsletter like Email that is sent out in bulk to all the members on the site could help bring back some of those members that forgot about the site for a bit. It'd be a reminder to say, "Hey, we still exist and we wanna see you again. :)"

@NuttsnBolts

That is actually a pretty good idea. Maybe something simple to make them aware the updates are rolling out at a steady pace, and Mahz does indeed love us. Also Mahz, my sympathy, take care!

We know the number might be depressing, but we found ourselves wondering how many users there are that haven't logged in since the relaunch... Its listed on individual user pages, but as userlist hasn't been implemented yet, it can't be checked easily.

@Ellri

I made a user search page for the next update, but it currently has no filter options. Now that you mentioned it, I'll amend that whenever I have time, hopefully before it is launched on the guild. Sort by newest or oldest are obvious, and based on who has an old guild name. Are there any other filter options people would like?

[Captain Jordan]

We know the number might be depressing, but we found ourselves wondering how many users there are that haven't logged in since the relaunch... Its listed on individual user pages, but as userlist hasn't been implemented yet, it can't be checked easily.

@Ellri

I made a user search page for the next update, but it currently has no filter options. Now that you mentioned it, I'll amend that whenever I have time, hopefully before it is launched on the guild. Sort by newest or oldest are obvious, and based on who has an old guild name. Are there any other filter options people would like?

@TheMaster99

Search by post quantity (asc & desc)? I'm kind of assuming this is the default, but if not, by alphabetical (asc & desc)?

Default is newest - oldest, so post quantity and alphabetical will both be added. Any others?

[Celaira]

Most active?

[Ellri]

Not got any suggestions for user page other than the aforementioned user number, post count & perhaps posts frequency... However, got a thought for a new profile field that people might find convenient... Preferred RP sections (free, casual, advanced, tabletop, etc.) and/or RP themes (fantasy, sci-fi, pokemon, historical, etc.). Might help people randomly browsing for players of similar interests to their own.

[Mahz]

No fun at all @Mahz. Hopefully it passes quickly! I was wondering if you could implement two things in the PM list. I've noticed there is a page forward button and one that takes you back to the first page. Do you think you could add another button so that we can go to the previous page (Now I think about it, it also applies to the recent posts on the userpage). Also, do you think you can bring back the PM count for each convo on the PM list? It was a helpful way for me to distinguish between convos with similar names and people involved.

@Kirra

1. I'll see about adding a "Previous" button for recent-posts and convos. That there's only a "Next" button is a bit of a performance hack since it's easy for the server to calculate. I didn't try to add a "Previous" button yet since I figured it wasn't so common for people to be iterating through history. But yeah, bit of a usability annoyance. 2. Haha, I didn't realize the convo message count wasn't displaying. Must've typo'd something. I will fix. Update: Whoops, forgot to add it back after a recent code change. It's fixed for the next code deploy.

[LegendBegins]

No fun at all @Mahz. Hopefully it passes quickly! I was wondering if you could implement two things in the PM list. I've noticed there is a page forward button and one that takes you back to the first page. Do you think you could add another button so that we can go to the previous page (Now I think about it, it also applies to the recent posts on the userpage). Also, do you think you can bring back the PM count for each convo on the PM list? It was a helpful way for me to distinguish between convos with similar names and people involved.

@Kirra

1. I'll see about adding a "Previous" button for recent-posts and convos. That there's only a "Next" button is a bit of a performance hack since it's easy for the server to calculate. I didn't try to add a "Previous" button yet since I figured it wasn't so common for people to be iterating through history. But yeah, bit of a usability annoyance. 2. Haha, I didn't realize the convo message count wasn't displaying. Must've typo'd something. I will fix.

@Mahz

Would a back button be more difficult than telling the server to go to page - 1?

[Captain Jordan]

No fun at all @Mahz. Hopefully it passes quickly! I was wondering if you could implement two things in the PM list. I've noticed there is a page forward button and one that takes you back to the first page. Do you think you could add another button so that we can go to the previous page (Now I think about it, it also applies to the recent posts on the userpage). Also, do you think you can bring back the PM count for each convo on the PM list? It was a helpful way for me to distinguish between convos with similar names and people involved.

@Kirra

1. I'll see about adding a "Previous" button for recent-posts and convos. That there's only a "Next" button is a bit of a performance hack since it's easy for the server to calculate. I didn't try to add a "Previous" button yet since I figured it wasn't so common for people to be iterating through history. But yeah, bit of a usability annoyance. 2. Haha, I didn't realize the convo message count wasn't displaying. Must've typo'd something. I will fix.

@Mahz

Would a back button be more difficult than telling the server to go to page - 1?

@LegendBegins

Indeed, a simple javascript back would be an easy hack for the meantime.

[Mahz]

Would a back button be more difficult than telling the server to go to page - 1?

@LegendBegins

The hack is that, unlike for posts and PMs, there are no pages for recent-posts and convos. I go through great length to get fast pagination for posts and PMs by monotonically increasing a number that starts at 0 for each post/PM in that topic/convo (I call it the post.idx and pm.idx). That way it's easy to calculate which range of idx to query from the database given a page number and the amount of posts/PMs to display per page. The database is fast at "WHERE idx > X AND idx < Y" queries. That system doesn't work as well for things with high churn like convos, so I'll see if I can get a previous-button working with the current hack.

Indeed, a simple javascript back would be an easy hack for the meantime.

@Captain Jordan

Oh man. Didn't think of that nasty hack which actually isn't that bad since a user is never deep-linking to a page of recent-posts or convos. It'll be my quick plan B if plan A sucks.

[Captain Jordan]

Would a back button be more difficult than telling the server to go to page - 1?

@LegendBegins

The hack is that, unlike for posts and PMs, there are no pages for recent-posts and convos. I go through great length to get fast pagination for posts and PMs by monotonically increasing a number that starts at 0 for each post/PM in that topic/convo (I call it the post.idx and pm.idx). That way it's easy to calculate which range of idx to query from the database given a page number and the amount of posts/PMs to display per page. The database is fast at "WHERE idx > X AND idx < Y" queries. That system doesn't work as well for things with high churn like convos, so I'll see if I can get a previous-button working with the current hack.

@Mahz

I really hope that's not going to bite you in the ass once the database has accumulated a high amount of posts/convos. Deletes are going to be a bitch if that happens.

Indeed, a simple javascript back would be an easy hack for the meantime.

@Captain Jordan

Oh man. Didn't think of that nasty hack which actually isn't that bad since a user is never deep-linking to a page of recent-posts or convos. It'll be my quick plan B if plan A sucks.

@Mahz

:D

[LegendBegins]

Would a back button be more difficult than telling the server to go to page - 1?

@LegendBegins

The hack is that, unlike for posts and PMs, there are no pages for recent-posts and convos. I go through great length to get fast pagination for posts and PMs by monotonically increasing a number that starts at 0 for each post/PM in that topic/convo (I call it the post.idx and pm.idx). That way it's easy to calculate which range of idx to query from the database given a page number and the amount of posts/PMs to display per page. The database is fast at "WHERE idx > X AND idx < Y" queries. That system doesn't work as well for things with high churn like convos, so I'll see if I can get a previous-button working with the current hack.

Indeed, a simple javascript back would be an easy hack for the meantime.

@Captain Jordan

Oh man. Didn't think of that nasty hack which actually isn't that bad since a user is never deep-linking to a page of recent-posts or convos. It'll be my quick plan B if plan A sucks.

@Mahz

So it essentially generates "pages" based on the number of posts to display, while no true pages are being generated, but simply a number of posts to display before breaking forward, which is why you can't go back? Because there's theoretically no place to go back to?

[Mahz]

I really hope that's not going to bite you in the ass once the database has accumulated a high amount of posts/convos. Deletes are going to be a bitch if that happens.

@Captain Jordan

It scales because it's incremental at the same cost whether there are 2 posts or 1,000,000 posts in the topic.

So it essentially generates "pages" based on the number of posts to display, while no true pages are being generated, but simply a number of posts to display before breaking forward, which is why you can't go back? Because there's theoretically no place to go back to?

@LegendBegins

Yeah, pretty much. If you hover over your "Next" button on recent-posts, you can see that it's passing in the ID of the last post on the current page. I could probably implement the "Previous" button as the inverse. Probably in the time I've been talking about it here.

[LegendBegins]

I really hope that's not going to bite you in the ass once the database has accumulated a high amount of posts/convos. Deletes are going to be a bitch if that happens.

@Captain Jordan

It scales because it's incremental at the same cost whether there are 2 posts or 1,000,000 posts in the topic.

So it essentially generates "pages" based on the number of posts to display, while no true pages are being generated, but simply a number of posts to display before breaking forward, which is why you can't go back? Because there's theoretically no place to go back to?

@LegendBegins

Yeah, pretty much. If you hover over your "Next" button on recent-posts, you can see that it's passing in the ID of the last post on the current page. I could probably implement the "Previous" button as the inverse. Probably in the time I've been talking about it here.

@Mahz

Heh, nice hack, there. But yeah, you could just have it put the ID of the first post on the last of the current page.

I tried implementing it myself when the guild first went open source, and the problem with using the first post id is that the first page of results will always meet the criteria of id > afterid. I couldn't think of any ways to do it using post ids, unless you store the previous beforeid in case you need it again. Or, like previously suggested, use JavaScript back. If Mahz can figure out a way to make the database query work, then afterid will work. To Mahz, I'd suggest using a subquery sort asc, then limit outside it and reorder. Works in theory, but it wouldn't play nice while I was trying it. Sorry for the formatting, on mobile and just woke up.

[TheUnknowable]

Is there a search feature? It would be nice to be able to look for RPs of a certain show/videogame/movie/book.